Surrounded by a spate of decay and deterioration in many schools around the country, with some schools having even lost their once-held status of 'prestige' , AlumnusOnline is set to encourage all South Africans to take school education into their own hands, and salvage the pride of the nation. They also intend to use the platform to showcase best practice and help maintain high standards that obtain in some of the schools within the country, especially the private institutions.

WHAT IS ALUMNUSONLINE?

AlumnusOnline is an online platform which is both a website application that can be accessed in a laptop or desktop, and a mobile App which works both on Android and IOS devices. It is a proudly South African product and it is ready to connect all schools with the former students they have produced over the years. It also links schools with corporates that adopt and support educational institutions. Using this platform, former students and corporates can literally influence the direction of the school while they are sitting in the comfort of their homes or offices.

Through a wide spectrum of features provided in the platform, users can do a lot for schools, including clubbing together and solving deep structural problems at various schools, and even raise funds to improve the performance of these schools. It provides a perfect opportunity to contribute towards the development of school education. Crucially, the App is free of charge for everyone: schools, former students, corporates and even current students at the schools. Capitalising on the mobilisation of former students and corporates, this platform promises to revolutionise the scaling of school development & support.

PARTNERSHIPS

“To achieve genuine credibility, it was critical that AlumnusOnline, solicits partnerships with respected corporate organizations: Strauss Daly Attorneys Inc., Dimension Data, Internet Solutions, former Deloitte Accounting Division (now called SoluGrowth) and Bryte Insurance”, said Dr Bheka Makhathini, Co-founder and Executive Director of AlumnusOnline NPC. He went on to give details about the different roles their partners will be playing to add value to their initiative: "Strauss Daly will help us with all matters legal and compliance-related, including supply chain engineering, procurement and project management; Dimension Data, on the other hand, will be responsible for Technical Support, Internet Solutions will assist with Cloud and Hosting Services & Cyber Security; SoluGrowth is charged with Fund Management and Accounting with all their infrastructure and experience in Finance; Bryte Insurance is our Operations and Strategy partner”, he explained.

FACT

"Schools simply do not receive enough grants from government to cater sufficiently for all their needs, and the fiscus simply cannot afford it", Dr Makhathini noted. According to him, it is also not prudent simply to transfer donations to schools when there are no demonstrable systems in place that receiving schools will be able to account for the use of those funds and that there will be no mismanagement of such funds, and that the interests of donors will be protected. He contends that their “credible” platform guarantees a transparent, cost-effective and dependable system that guards the interests of donors.

AlumnusOnline NPC are targeting politicians, executives, entrepreneurs, and a wide range of professionals, including CSI/CSR Practitioners and other influencers as potential donors or ambassadors/fundraisers of their former schools. "We also target people who are already involved with their former schools in some way”, said Dr Makhathini. AlumnusOnline intends to encourage all schools, public or private, to register online since registration is absolutely free. They are convinced that, supported by an army of former students and some corporates, the AlumnusOnline initiative should have an impact on all the schools across the country.